Godley Walmart Closing; Residents Angry
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GODLEY (CBS11) - A year after opening its doors in Godley, a Walmart Express store will be closing for good.
"They made a promise to bring something to Godley that we have never had before," said Pamela Aswell.
The Godley resident was loading up on groceries before the store shuts down on January 28th.
When the big box chain store opened its location on Main Street last January, residents like Andrea Hanna were hesitant.
"I wasn't excited at first, and I resisted," Hanna said.
But the new facility also included a pharmacy. It meant residents did not have to travel to nearby cities like Cleburne for prescriptions.
"They were handing out flyers, trying to convince everyone to move their prescriptions over and everybody did," Hanna says
In July, just months after Walmart opened for business, the only other grocery store in town, Brookshire Brothers closed.
"It's just a shame they put the other store out of business. [Walmart wasn't] there a year and now they're closing," Hanna says.
Walmart is shutting down all of its Express centers as part of its reorganization.
"Walmart instead will focus on strengthening Supercenters, optimizing Neighborhood Markets, growing the e-commerce business and expanding pickup services for customers. Also covered in the closures are 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 Supercenters, seven stores in Puerto Rico, six discount centers, and four Sam's Clubs," the company said in a statement.
Residents say they will be forced to travel out of town to buy groceries.
"There are no stores in town that have produce in Godley. You basically have to go to Cleburne," Aswell says.
A Walmart spokesperson told CBS11, 90% of stores that will be closing are less than 10 miles away from other Walmart locations.
Walmart stores in Cleburne and Burleson are approximately 13 to 15 miles away.
"Most of the people who live in Godley want to shop in Godley. They want to keep the money in their own town," explained Aswell.
The store will be closing its doors for good on January 28th, at 7:00 p.m.
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